Ride with Me

On Friday, the fact that I have been unable to obtain a vehicle yet almost put me over the edge. The idea of another weekend of dependence on my neighbor friends for rides to the supermarket, park, church, and social events was painful. The long and arduous process of gaining approval for a vehicle had worn me down. Waiting for the license, waiting to practice driving, waiting to take the final test, approval from management... I continually felt I was at on the bottom of the pile. There was little I could do. Na So E Be.

The head driver managed to 'squeeze me in' for a final test on Friday afternoon at 3:30pm. All staff are permitted to leave at noon on Fridays. But I waited and endured the communication difficulties, or lack thereof- I was left to decipher quick finger jabs indicating our turns while he shouted into his cell phone for the first half of the 'test'. When we turned off the express way he directed me to a very bumpy dirt road with lots of deep crevasses, goats, loitering people, cars parked every which way and other obstacles. I stalled once, but I was proud of myself. Thank goodness most roads I travel on are paved. Anyway,  when we finished, I made the driver drop me off at my house at 5pm which was my passive aggressive way of making a point that I still had no means of transportation.

The following Monday morning, I had little expectation of getting a vehicle, considering the number of weeks between each step of the way. At closing time, I went to the car board as usual to pick up the key for Rachel (my ride), and lo and behold I found my own name written on the board assigned to a vehicle! It was a Braveheart moment, "FREEEEEEE DOM!"

So, now I will have a car assigned to me every evening and weekend. I can hardly believe it! I log my mileage (kilometer-age?) and pay for personal usage at the end of the month. In addition to the purpose of venting my trial and tribulations, I also write about this process because obtaining driving privileges is a great example of how things function in Nigeria, on a small scale of course. The wait time, the persistence and even aggressiveness necessary to achieve results, the poor/absent communication. But today, I couldn't care less. I have a car! And I feel like I have an whole new world to explore!

People often describe driving here like playing a video game- Frogger at times, but also other video games where green monsters (taxi cabs here!) come out of nowhere forcing you to react quickly. I am sure I will soon wish I could collect eat a mushroom so I could leap over entire traffic jams or a feather to fly above it all. But for now, I'm content. Both drives to French and back home were flawless. Success!

Though not the best depiction of the chaotic intersections in Abuja, this video is a small flavor of what the roads are like - cars honking, people walking, wheelbarrows, and back-talking...